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The Challenges Of Social Issues

Decent Essays

1. Description of the challenge

Some of the challenges related to social issues are as follows:
• Cultural and people issue
Many experienced professionals believe most people are reluctant to share information and also learn from others’ experience. People avoid admitting mistakes due to negative effects for them in the organization. There is a traditional view that knowledge sharing is not a natural act and that people need to be forced to do it. Examples like knowledge is power, I don’t have time to do it, I want to do it in my way, I have got too much real work to do, you should already know all the answers. These are just a few. Mostly organizational cultures reinforce behaviors that prevent knowledge sharing like most of us in the …show more content…

Lack of standardisation of the system, practical difficulties in accessing the intranet and web-site from site offices, and the lack of ICT related resources such as software’s and technical support are examples of barriers for knowledge capture and sharing.

2. Consequences of the challenge

Fortune 500 companies lose roughly “$31.5 billion a year by failing to share knowledge” (Babcock, 2004, p. 46), a very scary figure in this global economy filled with turbulence and change. Social issues in knowledge capture and its reuse will result in decreasing chances of success. Those issues could increase costly mistakes and failure in services to clients. Some of the consequences of the social issues in knowledge management can be described as follows:
• Reduction of widespread contribution
• Lack of relevance, quality, and usability
• Improper implementation of technology
• Improper budgeting and excessive costs
• Lack of responsibility and ownership
• Loss of knowledge from staff release and retirement

3. Overcoming the challenge

Most knowledge is shared socially, e.g., face to face or telephone conversations. However, often the sharing of knowledge happens via electronic communications. Organisational efforts should be focused on creating opportunities for employees to interact, whether formally or informally, to foster knowledge sharing.

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